Balninkai is a township in Aukštaitija, ca. 30 km east of Ukmergė. In World War One, during the German advance on Vilnius it was passed through by units of 3. Kavallerie-Division on September 9, 1915.
During the German withdrawal from Russia at the end of 1919, units of the Red Army came to Balninkai area in mid-January 1919 and were pushed out by Lithuanian troops (Ukmergės rinktinė) on May 18.
In czarist times Balninkai (Bolniki) did not have a postal facility nor during the German occupation. During the brief Bolshevik period in the early months of 1919, a postal branch was opened in Ukmergė. A Lithuanian postal facility, probably a postal agency (agentūra), seems to have been opened in Balninkai in 1921. There is no available information about its early staff. Later, Balninkai had a post office status.
For stamps, Balninkai had Fourth Berlin Issue, followed by the Sėjėjas Issue etc. In the absence of a regular postmarker, for cancelling Balninkai used a rectangular cachet provided for money orders and parcel cards. The date was shown on the line meant for serial number.
No other provisional markings, including manuscript, have yet come to light. Later, Balninkai was supplied with a standard calendar-type postmarker.
Known provisional markings:
Cancelling by boxed cachet:
2 / 3 / 21(?) strip of 3, Berlin IV 40 [colln. Liesis]